20 IIMs with 20000 PGP seats: HRD Minister announces intake increase; more CAT 2016 takers to get IIM

If you are planning to appear in CAT 2016 or next CAT exam to get admission in one of the IIMs, it is the right time to opt for it as all the 20 IIMs are poised to almost double their intake in near future.
After a high level meeting held on September 20, 2016 with the directors of IIMs at IIM Shillong, Mr Prakash Javadekar Union HRD Minister has announced the decision of proposed intake expansion. Now the 20 IIMs are expected to double the intake from present 9500 in various PG Diploma programmes to 20000. The directors of all the IIMs have been told by MHRD to submit their expansion plan at the earliest, although no deadline for the proposal has been fixed.

According to the sources, the intake at IIMs will double to around 20000 from present 9000 plus in PG Diploma courses. The directors of IIMs have also assured the HRD Minister that the detailed proposal to increase the batch strength will be submitted soon to Ministry of HRD.

Infrastructure & faculty: Key issue in intake increase
Since the increase in intake will also depend upon the availability of infrastructure, faculty and other resources, the IIMs which have the ingredients are expected to increase the intake earlier than the ones who require capacity building infrastructure before expanding their batch strength.

Doctoral batch size to increase: Will help IIMs to increase faculty base
The meeting between MHRD and IIM directors also focused on increasing the batch size of doctoral programmes at IIMs. In view of Mr Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of HRD, the expansion of intake in doctoral batch will be a good source of faculty at IIMs who are fighting with the faculty crunch in their different programmes.

According to the HRD Minister, more fellowships can be offered to the candidates opting for doctoral programmes. The Prime Ministers scholarship offered to doctoral (PhD) students at IITs can also be offered to doctoral scholars at IIMs.

Present Intake
20 IIMs offer more than 45 management and doctoral programmes. Present intake except in doctoral programmes is more than 9000. However, following is the present seat capacity in flagship PGP programmes at 20 IIMs which comes to more than 4000 and the seat capacity in other programmes is also about this number.

If only the capacity for flagship PGP is doubled in near future it will offer a good opportunity to 9000 CAT takers to get admission in their desired IIM
Sl No.
IIMs
Current seats in
Flagship PGP
Proposed Seats as suggested by MHRD

1
Ahmedabad
400+
800

2
Bangalore
400+
800

3
Calcutta
460
900

4
Lucknow
440
800

5
Kozhikode
360
700

6
Indore
460
900

7
Kashipur
140
280

8
Shillong
160
300

9
Raipur
140
280

10
Ranchi
160
300
11

Rohtak
160
300

12
Tiruchirappalli
180
350

13
Udaipur
180
350

14
Amritsar
60
120

15
Bodhgaya
60
120

16
Nagpur
60
120

17
Sambalpur
60
120

18
Sirmaur
60
120

19
Visakhapatnam
60
120

20
Jammu
60
120

Interestingly, the newest IIMs are operating below their present full intake, so their endevour would be to complete the present intake before going for any further expansion.

IIMs also to participate in making 20 universities & institutes
In the meeting with the HRD Minister, IIMs also agreed to participate in the new initiative of the Government of India to make 20 world class universities & institutes. Out of these world class universities 50% will be built in the Government sector and the 50% will go to private sector.

It has also been decided that IIMs will also contribute and participate in the information technology platform SWAYAM. by creating contents. SWAYAM offers online courses on different subjects for the students studying in class 9th, onwards and upto undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

CAT 2016 is the mandatory exam for admission to any of the 20 IIMs. The registration process for CAT 2016 is proposed to close tomorrow on September 22 at 5PM while the exam in computer format will be held on December 4, 2016 in 138 test cities across the country.